White Chocolate Cake Batter Cups

Self-taught cook Serene, of food blog “House of Yumm” makes ridiculously tasty treats and eats. There are family meals, fun snacks and, of course, decadent desserts, much like these White Chocolate Cake Batter Cups recipe I came across while searching for one of my favorite sinful delights: white chocolate. If, like me, you can’t get enough white chocolate, then this recipe is the one for you!

White chocolate is actually a chocolate derivative but is not chocolate in the strictest sense as it doesn’t contain cocoa solids (the primary constituent of chocolate). Instead, white chocolate consists of cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids and is characterized by an ivory or pale yellow appearance. During processing the dark-colored solids from the cocoa bean are separated from the fatty content and not recombined, as with conventional chocolate. The white chocolate, therefore, contains only trace amounts of the stimulant caffeine and lacks antioxidant properties and many characterizing ingredients of chocolate. The cocoa butter is even deodorized to remove its strong flavor. White chocolate sometimes includes additional flavorings, such as vanilla. Nestle was the first company to launch a white chocolate bar; their bar was launched in Europe during the 1930’s. In North America, Kuno Baedeker while working for the Merckens Chocolate Company created a white chocolate in 1945. Conversely, chocolate dates back to pre-Olmec peoples, as early as 1750 BCE, and on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, there is evidence of chocolate (cacao beverages) dating to circa 1900 BCE.

What makes these white chocolate batter cups taste so delicious, aside from the luxurious white chocolate, is the edible cake batter they’re stuffed with, sprinkles are optional, by the way). I usually associate “delicious” with a lot of time and effort, but these are so easy to make! Do you have a box of cake mix? Yes? Great! You’re halfway there!

Tip number one: use white baker’s chocolate. It tends to melt easier than white chocolate chips for some reason. And you have to be more careful with white chocolate – if not, it will turn brown. While Serene suggests heating in a microwavable bowl for 30 second increments, I prefer to steam it in a glass bowl over a boiling pot of water. I just don’t trust my microwave to do the delicate work.

Tip number two: don’t try to do these step-by-step instructions in their entirety. What I mean is, don’t fill ALL the muffin cup bottoms with white chocolate before you add your cake dough mixture. Try doing just a few at a time, otherwise your white chocolate will start to harden before all of the steps are completed. One finished, you want to place your cups into the fridge to cool and set (otherwise you’ll have a bit of a mess on your hands – but there’s nothing in this recipe saying you can’t eat a little bit of the cake batter recipe as you go!)